Thun Celeuos was a right-wing, authoritarian-minded soldier, of
fairly low class and upbringing, who had become an officer in the
Guard by a mixture of talent, hard work, personal magnetism, and
making friends in the right places – particularly in the Brotherhood
Party. In 805, he was 36, married for ten years, and had two sons (a
daughter followed in 807). We know very little of his wife, who stayed
very much in the background, nor do we hear much of the children,
until they all died in 812. Celeuos had at his back the great
organisation of the brotherhood Party, already semi-military; now the
Guard and other military units became the "executive" arms
for the Party. As we have seen, the Party had a distinct political
programme, and Celeuos meticulously carried these out.

Celeuos’ first aim was to smash the organisation of the Fourth
Empire, and make himself and the Party all-powerful. He made himself
"Leader", announcing that for the time being he would not
replace the Emperor. (In fact he crowned himself Emperor in 810. None
of the later Tyrants followed suit, and Celeuos’ title is not
recognised in the later Atlantean official histories of the Emperors).
He suspended the Council at once, and "reconstituted" it, so
that it was permanently dominated by the governing Brotherhood Party.
In any case it was shorn of many of its powers, being purely advisory,
and met only when Celeuos required. The Empire was actually run by a
small coterie of military colleagues of Celeuos, who were given the
old high-sounding Ministerial posts. The Brotherhood Party gradually
spread its tentacles into all areas of government – provincial,
local, the law, the Army -, and no appointments or promotions could be
made without its agreement. All higher positions indeed required
membership of the Party, whether in civilian or military life.
Provincial Governors were appointed by the Leader, and even local
government at the lowest tiers was vetted by the Party. The leadership
of the Army was thoroughly overhauled, as the Brotherhood Party had
always demanded, and Celeuos’ own appointees were put in as
Generals, while he himself took command of the forthcoming campaigns.

He also built up a much stronger police force, which became an
Internal Security Army to rival the Regular Army as the years passed
– indeed after Celeuos’ time, it came to have much more prestige
than the "Frontier" Army, as it would be called. This
internal force succeeded in eliminating S. Empire and ethnic terrorism
within a year, which was regarded as a major achievement on Celeuos’
part. On the other hand, this same force was given increased powers of
surveillance over the civilian population, and more and more people
were arrested for "political" crimes (talking, agitating or
writing in any way contrary to the Government’s own policy). As time
passed, this political terror cowed any thoughts of opposition to the
regime. But in the first few years, Celeuos’ actions were generally
popular, after the miasma and corruption of the end of the Fifth
Empire. Celeuos carried out a number of needful reforms –
improvements in the conditions of workers in factories, increased
State ownership of factories, State running of Guilds, mortal
legislation, proper and effective policing against crime, less
political corruption, economic improvements, and military victories
abroad (at first).

MILITARY COUNTER-OFFENSIVES AGAINST RABARRIEH

A major plank of Celeuos’ stated policy was a vigorous
offensive in the war against Rabarrieh, and the reconquest of as much
territory as possible south of the Helvengio. Above all, of course, it
was the Atlantean and Yalland communities down there with which
Celeuos was concerned. The army and its command were thoroughly shaken
up and reorganised in 805-6, and in 806-7 Celeuos led the army in
attacks into Manralia. These were at first very successful in fighting
in the open country, and the Atlanteans advanced first south-west from
Raihco, and then, south-east from Noehtens to Dohgash. But once the
Atlanteans came up against prepared positions, such as the defences in
and around towns like Dohgash, or, later, Atlaniphis, Celeuos ground
to a halt. Modern rifles and cannon, coupled with the widespread use
of trenches and fortifications, lent great strength to defenders, even
if they were considerable inferior to their assailants. The Battle
of Dohgash in March 807 lasted over a week, involving 45000
Atlanteans at the beginning, as well as armoured tanks, against 35000
Rabarrans, and ending, after both sides had been reinforced, with
75000 Atlanteans and 55000 Rabarrans. The Rabarrans defended their
trenches, and later the town itself, with great tenacity, causing the
Atlanteans over 12000 casualties. Modern rifles and cannon meant that
the battle spread itself out over eight miles in the end. This was
also the first time that the Rabarrans had fought a set-piece battle
against the enemy, instead of hit-and-run, guerilla attacks, and both
they and the Atlanteans were astonished by their success. Dohgash was
an eventual Atlantean victory, but at Atlaniphis in 807, Celeuos was
completely unable to defeat the Rabarrans, and, with his supplies
under constant attack, he finally had to retire. This was the end of
his offensive against the Rabarrans in Manralia, and in the end, he
had regained virtually no ground other than the largely ruined city of
Dohgash.

In late 807, before he called off his offensives, Celeuos formed a
military alliance with "Uarilteccoth" against Rabarrieh, by
promising it a share in any territorial gains made. This was a shock
to Rabarrieh, which always considered "Uarilteccoth" as
being within its own orbit. In 808-9, campaigns took place in the
south of Yall.Thiss, led primarily by "Uarilteccoth". These
were indecisive, and in 810 Celeuos agreed to a cease-fire with the
Rabarrans.

CONFLICT WITH THE UGHANS

By 811, there were increasing numbers of raids by the Ughans
across the Gestes, where much surreptitious support was offered by the
Ughan refugee communities there. Emperor Kubli of the Ughans, in
particular, was furious with the way the Atlanteans were treating
Ughan communities within the Atlantean Empire. This led the Atlanteans
to undertake military operations against the Ughans on both sides of
the river. Celeuos persecuted the Ughans within the Empire with
ever-increasing ruthlessness, as he came to see them as potentially
subversive, and giving aid and succour to the enemies of the Empire.
In this, he believed himself to be following the precepts of the
Brotherhood Faith, which claimed that the Empire should be run for and
by Atlanteans alone – other races or nations were of less importance
in the scheme of things, and should be kept, by force if necessary, in
a state of subjection. This belief in the ethnic superiority of the
Atlanteans, which, initially, really included all the Juralic peoples,
was to become more and more ferocious and intransigent under the later
Tyrants.

THE "TRAGEDY" OF THUN CELEUOS’ ?

In later years, Celeuos seemed to lose his way, and certainly began
to lose the trust of the more die-hard Brothers. By 810, he was aware
that the efficiency of the army was rapidly declining, and at the same
time, a serious plot by a coterie of Yalland and Manralian officers
against Celeuos was exposed. These things persuaded Celeuos to agree
to a cease-fire with the Rabarrans, and then a purge of the Army. He
rooted out all non-Juralic officers, and proclaimed that henceforth
only men of Juralic background could reach the upper reaches of the
Army command. Units of lower-rank soldiers recruited in non-Juralic
areas of the Empire were to be regularly moved around the Empire.
Meanwhile the Internal Security Army was built up still further at the
expense of the Frontier Army. All of this was applauded by Celeuos’
more extreme supporters. But they were shocked and angered when he
partially abandoned much of it later in 811, because he thought that
the Frontier Army was being totally undermined by this policy, and its
quality and numbers were declining too rapidly. Then in 812, he seemed
to backtrack on another side of the Brotherhood’s policy, when he
declared that if the Ughan "terrorists" laid down their
arms, he would grant them a degree of autonomy, and cancel some of the
existing anti-ethnic discriminatory policies.

To his supporters, Celeuos had become a traitor, and modern
historians have also been puzzled by his wayward actions in these
years. We need to try to understand his character. In essence, Celeuos
was an ordinary, patriotic, indeed nationalistic soldier, intensely
conservative and traditional, and believing fully in the original
Brotherhood Faith. He thought that the Fifth Empire had lost its way,
and become corrupt, immoral and impotent from a military point of
view. He thought, in common with many other Brothers, that
"democracy" had been taken too far, that the Empire need a
firm, authoritarian hand, to root out corruption, crime, Nihilist and
other terrorism. It also needed to have its industries and factories
sorted out, with a strong curb being applied to rich, self-indulgent
industrialists. To this end, he appealed to the lower classes and
workers, though without intending to give them any more rights or
freedom.

However, when he put his beliefs into practice, things did not work
out as intended. He produced a harsh dictatorship, and gave his more
extreme lieutenants the freedom to become self-indulgent, cruel and
corrupt in their turn. He put into practice anti-ethnic policies,
which backfired. He tried to revitalise and reorganise the Army, but
his military offensives failed in the end, and the Frontier Army
became weaker than before. He tried to backpedal on some of his
policies, and only attracted the ire of his more extremist followers.
Morally, too, he seems a genuinely tragic figure. He aimed to tighten
up public and private moral behaviour, with regard to crime,
immorality and business corruption, but the general amoral malaise of
the time made this impossible. Philosophy and science had led to the
near collapse of traditional moral and religious beliefs and codes of
conduct, and the atmosphere of the time was "do what you
want". Art followed this trend, as artists now belonged to one of
two schools: nationalist, that is, toadying to the regime, or art for
art’s sake, in other words, an amoral aesthetic decoration of any
topic or event, however crude, pointless or immoral. Celeuos thus
found that his initial attempts to crack down on immorality in
behaviour or art was soon widely ignored or ridiculed. Lip-service was
paid to rooting out corruption in public office, or blatantly immoral
sexual behaviour in life or art, but all these things in fact
continued and increased in private, and later in public amongst the
more powerful of the Brothers, who could be considered, as superior
beings, to be allowed to behave differently from the general run of
humanity. In due course, Celeuos found he had no objective support
against which to fix his codes of morality, and by 811 had virtually
abandoned the attempt. Indeed he was himself tragically moved along by
the "Zeitgeist". While personally he remained traditionally
upright in his personal life, he followed the trend for more violence
and cruelty in government. His despotism led to widespread arrests of
anyone who disagreed with his policies, and they were more and more
often tortured before being released or executed. Brotherhood beliefs
were instilled into the population at every opportunity, at school, in
festivals and in art and propaganda.

Thus the tragedy of Celeuos is perhaps simply that he simply could
not live up to or conscientiously carry out the beliefs and policies
he supported to their logical extreme. As a result, he was to be
overthrown and replaced by other, more single-minded and ruthless men.
In 812, Borbar Measel, the Helvran commander of the Regular Army in
the provinces of Atlantis and Tuainnatlantis, plotted a coup. He was
backed by fellow Helvran officers in the Helvrieh Army. While Celeuos
was in the east of Dravidieh, Borbar declared him a traitor and
criminal, and inviting all other armies to join him, marched with a
small force on Cennatlantis. If the main Frontier Army in the east had
supported Celeuos, Borbar would have quickly been overwhelmed. But
Borbar had made careful preparations, and by promising favours to the
Internal Security Army, had swung much of it to his support. Moreover,
he was also able to draw on a strong groundswell of opinion against
Celeuos amongst Brothers. Borbar moved fast, and reached the capital,
before Celeuos could react. Celeuos approached from the east, and
hesitated. There was some half-hearted fighting, which Borbar won, and
then, as his support began to trickle away, Celeuos lost his nerve and
retreated eastwards. His supporters now completely evaporated, and his
troops revolted, imprisoning him, and then handing him over to Borbar.
Borbar at once personally executed him, and, as an illustration of the
growing barbarity of the times, searched out and put to death every
other member of his family.